1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of fingerprint image sensing and detection; i.e., to the detection of a fingerprint""s minutiae such as ridge endings and bifurcations. More specifically, this invention relates to a multipixel, capacitance type fingerprint sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, the fingerprint of a human is composed of lines or ridges, which have both branching parts or bifurcations and abrupt endings or end points. These branching parts, bifurcations, endings, and end points are also known as minutiae. Fingerprints are identified by the locations of, and the relationships among, these minutiae.
The present invention relates to an improved capacitance sensor that operates to sense or detect fingerprint minutiae. The use of capacitance type sensors is generally known.
For example, the publication SENSORS AND ACTUATORS, January, February 1989, no.1/2, at pages 141-153, contains an article entitled INTEGRATED TACTILE IMAGER WITH AN INTRINSIC CONTOUR DETECTION OPTION that was presented at the Fourth International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators (Transducers ""87), Tokyo, Japan, Jun. 2-5, 1987. This article describes an integrated capacitive tactile imaging sensor that comprises a multi-layer construction having a bottom ceramic support, a 9row/9-column array of square aluminum electrodes that are contained on a silicon wafer integrated circuit, a flexible and isolating intermediate layer that is made up of natural rubber, a thin conductive rubber layer, and a top protective layer. In this device, capacitance depends upon local deformation of the natural rubber layer. The 81 individual aluminum electrodes of this device provide capacitive measurement of an indentation pattern within the natural rubber layer, this indentation being caused by a pressure distribution that acts on the top protective layer.
The use of a capacitance type sensor to sense the minutiae of a human fingerprint is also known.
For example, the publication IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 18, NO. 1, JANUARY 1997, pages 19-20, contains an article entitled NOVEL FINGERPRINT SCANNING ARRAYS USING POLYSILICON TFT""S OF GLASS AND POLYMER SUBSTRATES. This article describes a two-dimensional (2-D), 200xc3x97200, capacitance sensing array that is made up of 40,000 individual pixels. Each pixel of the array includes two thin film transistors (TFTs) and a capacitor plate. Each array pixel resides at the intersection of an array-row and an array-column, and each array pixel is individually addressable by way of row-driver circuits and column-driver circuits.
Considering the two TFTs, hereinafter called TFT-A and TFT-B, that are associated with a given pixel, the drain electrodes of TFT-A and TFT-B are connected to the pixel""s capacitor plate, the gate electrode and the source electrode of TFT-A are connected to a row-conductor that is associated with the pixel, the gate of TFT-B is connected to the following row-conductor, and the source of TFT-B is connected to a column-conductor that is associated with the pixel.
A thin (0.1 micrometer) silicon nitride insulator overlies the capacitor plate of each array pixel. When the ridge of a fingerprint lies directly over the capacitor plate, a capacitor is formed between the capacitor plate and the finger. This capacitor is charged when a row-pulse (8 to 10 VDC, and of 10 to 100 micro second duration) is applied to the pixel by way of the row-conductor that is associated with this pixel and TFT-A. This stored charge is thereafter transferred onto the pixel""s column-conductor through TFT-B when a row-pulse is applied to the following row-electrode.
Also of interest is the publication 1997 IEEE INTERNATIONAL SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS CONFERENCE that contains an article beginning page 200 entitled A 390DPI LIVE FINGERPRINT IMAGER BASED ON FEEDBACK CAPACITIVE SENSING SCHEME. This article describes a single-chip, 200xc3x97200 element array, 2-metal digital CMOS technology, sensor that is based upon feedback capacitance sensing, and that operates to detect the electrical field variation that is induced by the finger""s skin surface. In each element of the array , two horizontally spaced metal plates are separated from the overlying and adjacent portion of the finger""s skin surface by passivation oxide. Since the distance between the skin and the sensor""s surface identifies the presence of the fingerprint""s ridges and valleys, an array of elements provides a complete fingerprint pattern.
In each element of the array, the two metal plates are respectively connected to the input and the output of a high-gain inverter, to thereby form a charge-integrator. In operation, the charge-integrator is first reset by shorting the input and output of the inverter. A fixed amount of charge is then sinked from the input, causing the output voltage to swing inversely proportional to a feedback capacitance value that is inversely proportional to the distance to the fingerprint""s ridges and valleys. The array of cells, or sensors, thus provides the complete fingerprint pattern. The fingerprint image disappears when the finger is removed from the array.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,056, incorporated herein by reference, is of interest in that it relates to a capacitance type fingerprint sensor wherein a finger is pressed onto the sensor""s surface in order to read the ridges and valleys of the fingerprint. The sensor-surface has a large number of capacitors of a small physical size associated therewith. Two sensors are described. In a first type of sensor, an electrical insulator carries a number of flexible and horizontally spaced curved metal electrodes, two adjacent metal electrodes of which comprise one capacitor. A protective insulating film overlies the electrical insulator, and when a finger is brought into physical contact with this protective insulating film, the metal electrodes are physically deformed, thereby selectively changing the capacitance of the large number of capacitors in accordance with the fingerprint""s ridge/valley pattern. In a second type of sensor, the top surface of a rigid support carries a number of horizontally spaced and flat metal electrodes in a fixed position. Placed above the plane of the metal electrodes is the sequential arrangement of a flexible insulator, a flexible electrode, and a flexible protective membrane. A capacitor is formed between the top flexible electrode and each of the lower and fixed-position flat metal electrodes. When the end of a finger is brought into contact with the flexible membrane, the flexible electrode becomes wavy in accordance with the fingerprints""ridges/valleys pattern.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No.5,325,442, incorporated herein by reference, relates to a capacitance type fingerprint sensor having a sensing pad that comprises a planar array of row/column sensing elements having a pitch of about 100 micrometers. Each sensing element is located at the intersection of a row conductor and a column conductor. A plurality of these sensing elements make up an array of regularly spaced, and relatively equal, size rectangles.
Each sensing element of this patent includes a first ungrounded, physically buried, and planar metal capacitor plate that is dielectric-spaced from an electrically grounded finger surface that forms a second capacitor plate, as shown in the circuit of this patent""s FIG. 2. In FIG. 7a-7b of this patent, the finger-engaging surface includes exposed and grounded metal film conductors 53 that physically engage the finger to ensure operation of the FIG. 2 circuit by reliably grounding the finger, to thereby reliably ground the above-described second capacitor plate.
The sensing elements are fabricated using photolithographic processes, and each individual sensing element includes a Thin-Film-Transistor (TFT) in the form of a Field-Effect-Transistor (FET). Each FET gate is connected to a row conductor, each FET source is connected to a column conductor, and each FET drain is connected to a sensing electrode.
In one embodiment, each sensing element comprises a sensing capacitor that is formed between a sensing electrode and the finger. In another embodiment, each sensing element includes an electrically isolated and conducting pad that is physically engaged and electrically grounded by the finger.
While prior devices, as above described, are generally useful for their limited intended use, a need remains in the art for a capacitance type fingerprint sensor wherein the fingerprint pattern of an ungrounded fingertip is sensed, and wherein the construction and arrangement of the sensor minimizes, or prevents, an electrostatic charge that may be carried by a human body from disturbing the operation of a capacitance type fingerprint sensor.
As is well known, a capacitive sensor array of the general type that finds utility in fingerprint pattern recognition/detection systems includes a generally planar array of many row/column arranged and individual capacitive sensing cells, wherein each individual sensing cell comprises one pixel of the array.
In a type of sensor array with which this invention finds utility, each sensing cell generally includes one or more generally topmost-level, dielectric-covered, and ungrounded metal capacitor plates. An ungrounded fingertip that forms another capacitor plate is placed on the top dielectric surface of the array, and cells that are physically contacted by a fingerprint ridge experience increased capacitance, as compared to those cells that are spaced a short distance below a fingerprint valley.
The present invention finds utility with a construction and arrangement wherein each such cell includes an amplifier circuit whose output/input are feedback-interconnected by a compound-capacitor circuit that is made up of the ungrounded one or more generally topmost-level and dielectric-covered metal capacitor plates, and the ungrounded fingertip that forms another capacitor plate.
In this particular type of ungrounded output/input feedback circuit configuration, the electrostatic charge that is sometimes carried by a human body may be sufficiently high to break through the sensor""s upper-most passivation layer or dielectric layer that covers all cells, and/or to exceed the gate oxide breakdown voltage of a sensing circuit that is connected to the one or more dielectric-covered metal capacitor plates.
The present invention improves the electrostatic discharge (ESD) performance of such a capacitive sensor array by physically surrounding, but not physically contacting, each individual dielectric-covered capacitor plate with a metal-grid-work, metal-mesh-lines, or a metal-pattern, that is connected directly to system ground potential.
Examples of such a grounded metal-pattern include, but are not limited to, a metal-pattern that occupies generally the same horizontal plane as the capacitor plate(s) to be protected from electrostatic charge, a metal-pattern that occupies a generally horizontal plane that is located vertically above the horizontal plane occupied by the capacitor plate(s) to be protected from electrostatic charge, a metal-pattern that occupies a generally horizontal plane that is located vertically below the horizontal plane occupied by the capacitor plate(s) to be protected from electrostatic charge, and a metal-pattern that occupies a horizontal plane that is located vertically below the horizontal plane occupied by the capacitor plate(s) to be protected from electrostatic charge and includes a plurality of metal fingers that extend vertically upward to generally surround the capacitor plate(s). In the spirit of this latter example, grounded metal-patterns within the spirit and scope of this invention need not be physically continuous grounded metal-patterns.
In accordance with this invention, the grounded ESD protecting metal grid/mesh/pattern may be placed in the same physical dielectric-covered level, or plane, as the above-described one or more metal capacitor plates, or the grounded ESD protecting grid/mesh/pattern may be placed on a somewhat higher physical and dielectric-covered level. It is critical to this invention that the grounded ESD protective grid/mesh/pattern of this invention be physically and electrically isolated from the upper dielectric surface that the fingertip touches. In this way, the fingertip is not undesirably grounded by physical contact with this upper dielectric surface. Grounding of the fingertip is undesirable in this type of capacitance sensing array since a grounded fingertip would also ground a portion of the amplifier""s output/input feedback circuit, thus rendering the amplifier essentially inoperative.
The present invention finds particular utility when the grounded protective grid thereof is provided as a portion of a solid state capacitive sensor for a fingerprint recognition system that includes a periodic array of integrated circuits (ICs) and dielectric-buried capacitor plates; for example, wherein each array pixel includes a signal-inverting circuit whose output and input are respectively connected to one of a pair of generally topmost disposed, dielectric-buried, and generally coplanar metal capacitor plates. In this construction and arrangement, the fingertip that is being subjected to fingerprint pattern sensing/recognition is physically placed on, or very closely adjacent to, a top-most disposed dielectric or passivated surface of the solid state sensing structure. The presence of an ungrounded fingertip skin ridge across a cell""s pair of dielectric-buried coplanar metal plates operates to induce capacitive coupling between the pair of capacitor plates, relative to, for example, and an adjacent cell whose buried capacitor plates cooperate with an ungrounded fingertip skin valley. The entire fingerprint pattern can thus be digitized by sensing the differences in adjacent cell capacitive values.
The ESD immunity of such a solid state array may be relatively poor, since in this type of circuit configuration, it is usual to connect the cell""s buried and ungrounded capacitor plates to transistor gates and/or to connect the cell""s ungrounded and buried capacitor plates to system ground potential by way of reverse biased diodes. In this type of construction and arrangement, the electrostatic charge sometimes carried by a human body and its fingertip, which may be in the range of several kilo volts (kV), may be sufficiently high to break through the solid state cell""s upper dielectric/passivation layer, and thus raise the potential at ungrounded circuit nodes that are associated with the buried capacitor plates so as to exceed the gate oxide breakdown voltage of the transistor gates that are connected to these capacitor plates. In addition, if the fingertip""s electrostatic induced voltage buildup across the above mentioned ground connecting diodes exceeds the oxide breakdown voltage, the gate oxide can be ruptured, thus damaging the associated array cell.
In order to improve the ESD immunity of such a solid state array, the present invention operates to surround each capacitor plate with a grid, or mesh of metal lines, that are connected directly to system ground potential. In accordance with this invention, this new and unusual grounded grid/mesh of metal lines may be placed, buried, or routed in the same horizontal plane as that occupied by the capacitor plates, or the grid/mesh of metal lines may be placed, buried, or routed in a higher horizontal plane than the plane occupied by the buried capacitor plates. In this second case, the grid/mesh of metal lines occupies a plane that is physically closer to, but remains dielectric-isolated from, the fingertip than is the plane of the buried capacitor plates.
An object of this invention is to provide electrostatic discharge protection for a capacitive type fingerprint pattern sensing array that has a number of individual skin-distance sensing cells that are arranged in a closely spaced physical configuration, wherein the array includes a dielectric layer having an upper surface on which an ungrounded fingertip having a fingerprint pattern is placed. Each sensing cell includes an amplifier having an ungrounded input mode, an ungrounded output node, and ungrounded output-mode-to-input-node negative feedback circuit. This negative feedback circuit includes the capacitive effect of a fingertip of the upper surface of the dielectric layer, and this negative feedback is therefore sensitive to the fingertip""s unique fingerprint pattern. More specifically, this negative feedback is provided by the series electric effect of (1) a first capacitor plate that is located or buried vertically under the upper surface of the dielectric layer and connected to the ungrounded input node, (2) a second capacitor plate that is located, or buried, vertically under the upper surface of the dielectric layer in close horizontal spatial relation to the first capacitor plate and connected to the ungrounded output node, and (3) the ungrounded fingertip that is placed in vertical spatial relation with the first and second capacitor plates. Continuous, or discontinuous, grounded metal paths are now provided vertically under the upper surface of the dielectric layer, or buried within the dielectric layer, to thereby spatially surround the first and second capacitor plates in an electrical sense. This metal path is connected to ground potential, to thereby protect the input and output nodes from electrostatic potential that may be carried by the fingertip, and in a manner that does not disturb the ungrounded state of the fingertip.
These and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reference to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, which description makes reference to the drawing.